From the Editors

The first section of this issue is dedicated to William J. Higginson, one of the pioneers of English-language haiku, who died October 11, 2008. The centrepiece is Bill’s last piece of writing, a haibun, which was given to us by his wife, Penny Harter. It movingly demonstrates all that for which Bill is noted: scholarship, poetic talent, humbleness and courage.

Many readers have given us positive feedback about the Fall issue, both for the content as well as for the design. In terms of the latter, the bright colors of the cover and the title page drew special attention. Thus, some are bound to be disappointed by the cover of this issue, for it is in three shades of one color, as was the Spring issue.

It seems appropriate, then, to explain our color choices for the three different covers we have had to date. For the Spring/Summer issue, we chose green as the best representative of the two seasons (frog leaps up). For the one in Fall, we chose several different colors to reflect autumn’s palette (frog jumps down); while for this issue, we selected blue—as in ice-blue—to reflect the experience of readers who live in areas frequented by freezing temperatures (frog hibernates).

But such criteria are not the only ones involved, for a constant constraint on our decision-making is the cost of printing—one color being cheaper than two, and so on. We figured the HSA budget for Frogpond could tolerate a splurge of color for one issue, but not for more.

Also, readers will note that this issue has more pages than any previous Frogpond. Two reasons account for this: the memorial for Bill and the informative, but lengthy, judges’ comments for the Kanterman Book Awards.